Olga Paredes Britez is a Paraguayan lawyer and social worker. She is a PhD candidate in Social Sciences at the University of Buenos Aires and serves as Director and lecturer at the National University of Asunción I was a scholar of the “Program for the Strengthening of the Public Function in Latin America” (Botín Foundation, Spain) and I have completed postgraduate studies in Youth Policies from the Organization of Ibero-American States. I am a Specialist in Public Policies (FLACSO-Brazil and CLACSO), I have a Master’s in Social Sciences from the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO-Paraguay) and Master’s in Project Management from the Isabel I University (Spain). I am finishing a Master’s in Local Government from the National University of Quilmes (Argentina) with a scholarship from the Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO). Recently, the Ibero-American Postgraduate University Association (AUIP) awarded me a scholarship to pursue a Master’s Degree in Education with a mention in Management and Quality Assurance in Higher Education. I am currently pursuing a Doctorate in Social Sciences with an emphasis on Government and Public Policy at the University of Buenos Aires.
Olga Maria Paredes Britez’s Case Study
A comparative study showing how weak local frameworks in Buenos Aires and Asunción limit youth participation revealing both the fragility and untapped potential of municipal youth policies to shape democratic inclusion.
Voices behind the research
Why working on Youth Political Participation?
The human right to youth participation is as important as any human right, like health, education, or work. Understanding and engaging in participation allows us to find purpose in our lives, and it is a tool for transformation, both on a collective and individual level. I experienced youth participation since university and that changed my life. I connected with the diverse realities of my country, not only through studies, but also through student organisation and mobilisation. It made me feel capable of improving the reality in which I live. Once I experienced participation, after finishing university I couldn’t stop engaging in it. That is why I decided to continue my participation as a young person and as a citizen in a political party and in other social spaces. Participating connects us with our past and commits us to our future as a society, promoting a better quality of life for the next generations.
Things Olga would like to share
I was Vice President of the Law Student Center and General Secretary of the Social Work Student Center, of the National University of Asunción. I was part of the #UNANoTeCalles movement, which in 2015 denounced the acts of corruption committed by the Rector, until he was dismissed.
In 2016, I was a candidate for President of the Youth of the Liberal Party and until 2021, I was a National Member in it. During 2017 I participated in the citizen mobilisations of #31M, against President Horacio Cartes until we stopped his plan to arbitrarily modify the National Constitution to achieve his re-election. During 2020, I was unfairly criminalised by the Cartes Group press media and the Attorney General’s Office for my participation in 31M. That same year, the Judiciary resolved the accusation against me as inadmissible, rendering them null and void. In 2021, I led an internal national movement in my party, named: “Liberal Coherence”, which obtained 27 thousand votes and two spaces in the National Directory. The same year, I ran as a candidate for Municipal Councilor of Asunción representing my party.
From 2019 to 2020, I hosted the radio program “Espacio Joven”, which aimed to promote the prominence of young leaders in politics, science, and the arts.
Personality Olga admires most
Simone de Beauvoir
Reflecting on her life as a woman, she built a new feminist paradigm that she bequeathed to the next generations. She did philosophy, science and literature. She was a prolific writer but was also a political activist.
Papers already published
- Realities and challenges of university extension in the context of the Covid 19 pandemic: https://revistascientificas.una.py/index.php/kerayvoty/article/view/2883
- New democratic challenges of the university in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic: https://revistascientificas.una.py/index.php/kerayvoty/article/view/3516
- Patriarchal violence and Paraguayan social structure: https://www.flacso.edu.py/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/2.Publicaciones-FLACSO-Scappini.pdf
- Peasant women and the fight for land: experiences of participation of peasant women from the Chakoré Community in the framework of the Agrarian Reform in the years 2006-2016: https://revistascientificas.una.py/index.php/kerayvoty/article/view/3398
- Education in Stroessner’s time and the Legitimation of the Anti-Republican.: https://www.academia.edu/20362184/La_Educaci%C3%B3n_en_tiempos_de_Stroessner_y_la_Legitimaci%C3%B3n_de_lo_Anti_Republicano
- “Thematic directory of civil society organizations in Paraguay””: https://facso.una.py/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/LB-directorio-VF.pdf
- “Migration experiences of families from urban Paraguayan settlements in dispute with real estate capital”: https://doi.org/10.11144/Javeriana.cvu17.emfa
- “The PLRA in the last seven years and its future”: https://doi.org/10.54549/cs.2023.3.5.4533
- “Realities and challenges of university extension in the context of the Covid 19 pandemic”: https://doi.org/10.54549/ky.7.2022.e2883
- “New democratic challenges of the university in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic”: https://doi.org/10.54549/ky.5e.2020.50
- “Patriarchal violence and Paraguayan social structure”: https://www.flacso.edu.py/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/2.Publicaciones-FLACSO-Scappini.pdf
- “Peasant women and the fight for land: experiences of participation of peasant women from the Chakoré Community in the framework of the Agrarian Reform in the years 2006-2016”: https://doi.org/10.54549/ky.3.2018.118
- “Education in Stroessner’s time and the Legitimation of the Anti-Republican”: https://www.academia.edu/20362184/La_Educaci%C3%B3n_en_tiempos_de_Stroessner_y_la_Legitimaci%C3%B3n_de_lo_Anti_Republicano